Two Eleven Plus Answers

Holding on for call centres is one of the most frustrating experiences available to us as human beings.

“Thank you for your patience. Your call is moving up the queue. Please continue to hold.”

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

“Thank you for your patience. Your call is moving up the queue. Please continue to hold.”

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

It would easier to control our emotions if we knew just how long the queue was.

I wonder if our ten year old children have exactly the same feeling as they wait for us to solve a verbal reasoning or a non verbal reasoning question.

We use very able `A’ level students as assistant teachers in our centres. They bring intelligence and vitality to the lessons. One of our very bright assistants, with excellent GCSE results including ten `A’ stars, two `A’s and a `B’, was puzzling over a question for some time. The question came from a standard and highly reputable source. The answers were available – and were open on the table.

We all stopped and watched. It was one of those moments caught in time. An extraordinarily intelligent seventeen year assistant struggling with a mere Eleven Plus question!

Was there a problem with the answer book?

Was the question phrased in such a manner that an answer was impossible?

Naturally we were drawn like magnets to the source of the problem. We now had assistants with A’ level special subjects covering all the mathematics and science subjects as well as art, psychology, history and economics.

There was enough energy in that room to have made a lot of things happen!

I look down at our smiling pupil. There was no evidence of frustration. She was enjoying the moment! After all I am sure we would all like to be fussed over at one time or another.

One by one the other assistants and then the teacher in charge wandered away leaving just the three of us looking at the question. A girl sitting at another desk whispered to me: “I know how to do it. I did that paper a few weeks ago. Questions like that are really easy. Look …”

In two sentences she explained the solution. There were in fact two answers. The answer book was correct but did not show both answers.

So the next time you try to access a call centre and you hear those dreaded words:

“Thank you for your patience. Your call is moving up the queue. Please continue to hold.”

Try not to feel too frustrated - just take your anger out on a poor and unsuspecting Eleven Plus reasoning question. (Where there are two answers!)